


last night

by CeruleanTactician



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Beginnings, Bisexual Female Character, F/F, Femslash, First Meetings, Gen, Humanstuck, Lesbian Character, Minor Injuries, POV Female Character, POV Nepeta Leijon, POV Third Person, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, Platonic Soulmates, Polyamory, Queerplatonic Relationships, Rare Pairings, Red Romance, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Swearing, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000, Wordcount: Over 1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-29
Updated: 2016-03-29
Packaged: 2018-05-24 02:49:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6138766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CeruleanTactician/pseuds/CeruleanTactician
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The worst kind of soulmate is the kind of soulmate you meet because she broke into your house at 3 A.M. In which: Nepeta is tired, Aradia is irresponsible and Equius is so done with this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	last night

**Author's Note:**

> Soulmate AU in which the first words your soulmate says to you is tattooed on your body from birth.

Nepeta Leijon was eight when she met her first soulmate. Equius was a short boy, back then, with a stutter. She hadn’t understood all the mushy stuff the adults said, about how you just knew when you found your soulmate, but still, when she saw him she knew he was hers. She asked him if he wanted to play pirates and his eyes nearly fell out of his head and he yelled “It’s you!” so loud that everyone stared. Nepeta grabbed his arm, and they hadn’t been separated since. It took a week for her mother to believe her when she said that she had met her soulmate. People just didn’t meet that young, but Nepeta was glad every day she was one of the rare lucky exceptions. It took another sixteen years for her to meet her second one.

She’d since- well, not given up per se, but she certainly wasn’t looking. Nepeta was grateful for what she had, and would personally beat up anyone who suggested her and Equius’ platonic relationship was any less important than any romantic relationship. The hopeless romantic in her had learned to be happy with that.

It was another late night for Nepeta. One of the cats got sick at the shelter, so she’d been spending extra time making sure that the poor kitty was getting healthier, on top of her normal duties. All the she wanted to do was go home and collapse into bed, and maybe vent to Equius if he was still up. Not likely. The man needed his beauty sleep.

Nepeta does not notice the blood on her welcoming mat. Nepeta does not notice that her door is already unlocked.

Nepeta shrieks when she sees the girl, in her kitchen, wrapping gauze around her wrist. She feels her heart skip a beat and her purse hit the floor when she notices that the girl is covered in blood. The girl turns, brown eyes sizing her up.

“Do you have any more?” she asks casually.

“Any more w- what?” Nepeta stutters, shaking half out of fear and half rage. Where is Equius? If this intruder has done something to him-

“Huh.” she smiles to herself and continues wrapping her bandages as if nothing happened.

“What!” says Nepeta, regaining some confidence.

“I didn’t expect it to be you.” she looks straight into Nepeta’s eyes and she was once again frozen. “I’m sorry if I scared you. I’m just in a desperate situation. Had to go to the first place I saw.”

She glances down at the pool of blood on the floor and shrugs.

“It felt right to come here. And look what happened! I’ve met my soulmate.” she smiles.

“Soulmate?” Nepeta yells, mind immediately replaying the conversation. She always paid attention in conversations- her unfound soulmark, _Do you have any more?_ , wasn’t a particularly memorable phrase- fuck. That was it. The girl who had appeared at 3 A.M. in her kitchen, covered in blood, was her other soulmate. Fuck.

“I meant gauze, by the way. I’m still kind of bleeding here.” the girl began to whistle, as she examined her wounds. She was good at whistling. The tune sounded familiar- holy shit. It was Indiana Jones. Nepeta was so fucking done.

“Fuck.” said Nepeta, pulling up a chair to the kitchen table. She stared down at the back of her palm. _Do you have any more?_ seemed to mock her. She had always thought it would’ve been something mundane- like pencils or something. She fantasized about it all of the time, back when she was younger and more romantic. Finding one out of two soulmates in Equius so young had dampened the fantasizing somewhat- it was cruel, but even if she never found her other soulmate, she always still had Equius. Thinking like that made her feel guilty, but she always acknowledged how lucky she had gotten. There were tons of people out there who didn’t even find one soulmate, or who didn’t even get to have a single soulmark.

Nepeta takes one more look at the girl- at her soulmate- and immediately springs up. 

“Oh my god- you’re hurt!”

“It’s Aradia, by the way, soulmate. And it’s not that bad. Just, y’know. Almost got stabbed to death by my psychopathic rival.”

Nepeta grabbed the first aid kit underneath the kitchen sink and rushed over to Aradia to begin cleaning up the blood to get a look at Aradia’s wounds, starting with the most severe, on her chest.

“My name is Nepeta. Lift your shirt up.”

“So forward!” She laughed. Nepeta ignored that with a growl. “Mmm. Sorry. I usually don’t act like this. Blood loss is a real bitch. Heh. Spider bitch...”

“Equius! Fuck- whoops, darn- Equius! Call 9-” Nepeta felt a hand cover her mouth and looked up into Aradia’s mesmerizing dark eyes.

“No hospitals.”

“What- but-”

“No hospitals. I’m fine. Just a little scratched up. Nothing too deep.” she paused. “Who’s Equius?”

“My other soulmate.” Nepeta felt like that was best to get out of the way first.

“Y’know, actually I have another soulmate, too, that I haven’t discovered- do you think-”

The sound of Nepeta tearing open a fresh pack of gauze stopped her.

“EQUIUS!” she yelled again.

“Your wounds aren’t the worst I’ve ever seen.” said Nepeta, years of veterinary training coming to her. Of course, that was usually with cats and not her soulmate.

“I already told you that, no need for worries ba-” Aradia was interrupted by Equius.

“Nepeta? What’s wrong- who is this?” He looks panicked.

Nepeta gave her soulmate a thin smile.

“She’s my other soulmate. Also, could you make so coffee?”

“Hello gorgeous!” laughed Aradia at Equius.

“Are you getting delirious from blood loss?” asked Nepeta.

Aradia stared at Equius intently, scanning for some sort of reaction.

“Darnit. He’s not my soulmate, soulmate.” said Aradia, glancing towards Nepeta.

“Delirious from blood loss it is then.”

Aradia grinned from ear to ear and promptly passed out.

………

Aradia wakes up the next morning and Nepeta wanted to slap her, and would if she didn’t look so pale and pathetic. Aradia took one look at her and wanted to go close her eyes again. It was obvious that Nepeta had not gotten a wink of sleep last night. Equius, who was peering over her shoulder, looked about the same.

“What did you mean by not calling a hospital? And what did you say about someone trying to kill you?” demands Nepeta.

“Nepeta, please. She just woke up.”

“Sorry. I’m just worried because my soulmate came into my apartment bloody and bruised because a psychopath apparently tried to kill her and I can’t even called the police!”

“I can explain.” Aradia coughed, nervous. “I don’t usually burst into people’s apartments like that. Sorry. Blood loss. Also alcohol. Heh.”

Equius sighed.

“You’re my soulmate too.”

“What- but then you didn’t even react to my ‘hey beautiful’!”

“I was more worried about my soulmate's soulmate bleeding out on the carpet.”

“I wasn’t gonna-”

“And about that explanation?” questioned Nepeta.

Aradia sighed. It felt nice to be cared about. To be wanted.

“First of all, I think reintroductions are in order. Hi, I’m Aradia Megido, part time grave robber, archaeologist, explorer, historian, cinema connoisseur and ameteur mortuary cosmetologist. At your service.”

Nepeta and Equius’s eyebrows rose.

“Nepeta Leijon. I said last night but what with the blood loss…”

“Equius Zahhak. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you both. I think we’ll all be very happy together.” Aradia grinned. And for some strange reason, Nepeta couldn’t help but smile too.


End file.
